Hebrew word · H7938

שֶׂ֫כֶר

sekher

hire

Hire, wages, the pay given to a laborer, a soldier or a hired animal (Genesis 30:28–33; Deuteronomy 24:15 implied context). By extension, a recompense or reward, including God's (Genesis 15:1, 'your reward shall be very great').

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 23, 2026

What it means

hire, wages

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Proverbs 11:18

Range of meaning: Hire, wages, the pay given to a laborer, a soldier or a hired animal (Genesis 30:28–33; Deuteronomy 24:15 implied context). By extension, a recompense or reward, including God's (Genesis 15:1, 'your reward shall be very great').
Against the English: Most versions say 'reward', which is fair but can sound like a prize or bonus. The Hebrew keeps the language of ordinary earnings: what the work actually pays.
How it drifted: Modern 'reward' tends to mean a prize on top of normal pay, or in church settings a heavenly reward. The Hebrew word means wages first.
Used elsewhere in the period: Used for laborers' wages in Genesis 30–31 (Jacob and Laban) and in Ecclesiastes 9:5. The Greek translation renders it 'misthos', the normal Greek word for wages.

Where it appears

Proverbs · 1

Proverbs 11:18 שֶׂ֣כֶר wage[s] of

The wicked man earns an empty wage, but he who sows righteousness reaps a true reward.

Here: Ordinary pay for work. It sounds almost exactly like 'shaqer' (falsehood) in the first line, which makes a deliberate pun.

Isaiah · 1

Isaiah 19:10 שֶׂ֖כֶר wage[s]

The workers in cloth will be dejected, and all the hired workers will be sick at heart.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.